Site Mobile Navigation

A Midseason Classic: Irabu Wins His Debut

Hundreds of camera flash bulbs lighted up Yankee Stadium when Hideki Irabu uncorked his first pitch last night. Curious fans were treating this game in July like October, and the newest Yankee like an immediate celebrity. And the fans who did not bring cameras were eager for pretty pictures from the Japanese pitcher. They wanted full-color action shots.

Irabu could not have provided much snazzier pictures if he had posed. He used a powerful fastball, a nasty split-finger fastball and a sneaky curveball to register strikeouts. Irabu kept numerous fans busy dutifully cataloguing each of his nine strikeouts along the facing of the Stadium. Several of the placards used the Japanese word for strikeout, providing a touch of Tokyo in the South Bronx.

These new versions of the K-corner were only one of the unusual twists on an evening when Irabu made Yankee history as the team's first Japanese pitcher. He made it even more memorable by guiding the Yankees to a 10-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Irabu showed considerable poise, showed why the movement on his pitches can make him overwhelming and also showed that he can sputter slightly if his control vanishes.

Still, on a night when 51,901 pairs of eyes were watching George Steinbrenner's pet pitcher -- the man he has obsessed over since February -- Irabu made a valiant debut by pitching strongly into the seventh inning. It was appreciated. When Manager Joe Torre summoned Jeff Nelson to replace him, Irabu received a standing ovation that did not end until the pitcher was shoved out of the dugout and waved his cap. In the boisterous dugout, Irabu smiled.

Even though the Yankees ripped Detroit for the eighth straight time, with Tino Martinez smacking a three-run homer off Omar Olivares, Derek Jeter rapping four hits and the Tigers giving up three bases-loaded walks in an ugly fifth inning, this night belonged to the chunky right-hander who longed to play for the Yankees. Irabu allowed two runs, five hits and a surprising four walks in six and two-thirds innings and threw 61 strikes among 98 pitches.

''I think the guys rallied around him before the game,'' catcher Joe Girardi said. ''You get caught up in the crowd like the crowd does when there's 51,000 screaming fans here. He brought a lot of life here. I'm glad he does that. That was a blast.''

An impressed Torre said: ''It was remarkable what he did with all the hoopla that was going on. We knew it was going to take on a carnival-like atmosphere. No one was disappointed.''

Steinbrenner added, alluding to the efforts it took to pry Irabu from Japanese baseball: ''He literally took on a nation to come here. He said, 'I want New York.' ''

Now Irabu has New York and New York has him, and the first day of the new marriage was a success. There was a circus-like atmosphere as 300 reporters, including 100 from Japan, covered an event that was expected to be seen by 35 million people on Japanese television.

But Irabu did not wilt, even though his fastball was 5 miles an hour slower than the 99-m.p.h. cannon he typically throws. Steinbrenner added to the hysteria before the game by initially limiting access to the clubhouse, and then closing it to the news media altogether, in violation of major league rules. The Yankees brought some players to an interview room before the game, a switch sanctioned by baseball.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Nothing seemed to bother Irabu. He barely flinched when four reporters innocently stood beside his locker and a team official shouted, ''Get them away from him,'' even though none of them spoke Japanese and none tried to interview him. Irabu impressed Torre during a pre-game meeting when they reviewed signals for pickoffs and pitchouts and he responded to each query in English.

''He didn't have problems,'' said Kota Ishijima, Irabu's interpreter, who consulted with the pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre between every inning as he waited in the runway next to the dugout. ''I was in awe.''

Irabu received the loudest ovation of any Yankee before trotting on the field with his teammates for the national anthem. A hulking figure at 6 feet 2 inches and 230 pounds, he quickly looked comfortable in a Yankee uniform by striking out four of the first six Tigers and tossing 18 strikes in his first 22 pitches.

''When I got out on the mound, all the things that I went through in the last six months came to me in a flashback,'' Irabu said. ''I really had that on my mind. I had to change the channel. I knew I was part of this team now, and I had to do what I could to contribute.''

But the nifty control that Irabu had displayed while giving up only one walk in 31 minor league innings disintegrated when he walked Curtis Pride to start the third. After a single by Raul Casanova, Deivi Cruz's hit-and-run single on a 3-2 pitch scored Pride to give the Tigers the lead, 1-0. Irabu stranded two runners by firing three strikes past Travis Fryman.

Once the Yankees exploited Casanova's throwing error for four runs in the third inning, Irabu really relaxed. He whiffed three of four Tigers in an 18-pitch fourth. Eight of his first 12 outs were strikeouts.

As dominant as Irabu was in the fourth, he sputtered in the fifth, when the Tigers used two hits and two walks to chisel the deficit to 4-2. After Irabu tossed eight straight balls with two outs to load the bases, Stottlemyre asked Ishijima the Japanese phrase for ''stay back'' and made his debut as a bilingual speaker in a comical session on the mound. The advice seemed to work: Bob Hamelin cued the next pitch, a tricky sinker, to third base to end the threat.

''The most impressive thing about him was that knack,'' an admiring David Cone said. ''He has that intangible you can't quantify. When to take a little off the fastball, when to put a little on. He had presence. He had know how. He knows how to pitch.''

INSIDE PITCH

HIDEKI IRABU's first outing compared well with HIDEO NOMO's major league debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 2, 1995. Nomo lasted five innings, in which the right-hander gave up one hit and no runs to the San Francisco Giants while striking out seven and walking four. . . . Yankee radio and television announcers changed how they pronounced Irabu's last name last night, after asking his interpreter, KOTA ISHIJIMA, how the name would be pronounced in Japan. But Ishijima said after the game that the pronunciation that has been in use -- ear-RAH-boo -- is correct in the United States. . . . WADE BOGGS wants to be traded, and his agent is trying to help orchestrate a deal, but the disgruntled third baseman said he would not be a nuisance while he waits. ''Like JOHNNIE COCHRAN said, 'If you don't fit, you got to get rid,' '' said Boggs, whose rhyming was off a little. . . . Even though CECIL FIELDER teased Irabu about getting to games earlier because he is a rookie, he will not remember the debut fondly as he struck out four times in four at-bats and was incessantly booed.